Monday, December 28, 2015

The German Navy Frankenthal-class (type 332) mine countermeasure vessel FGS Weilheim (M 1059) has sailed into Valletta Port (the Grand Harbour) this afternoon on a courtesy visit. This is her third visit in Valletta Port this year.

The German MCMV is presently berthing alongside at Gun wharf, and she's scheduled to sail from Malta in the coming days. (28-Dec-2015)

Friday, December 18, 2015

The Italian Coast Guard Luigi Dattilo-class multi-purpose patrol vessel Luigi Dattilo (CP 940) has sailed into Valletta Port (the Grand Harbour) this morning on a courtesy visit. This is her second visit in Valletta Port this year.The Italian patrol vessel is presently berthing alongside at Pinto-2 wharf, and she's expected to sail from the Malta in the coming days. (18-Dec-2015)

Malta International Airport today welcomed its
4,500,000th passenger this year, marking another milestone in the airport’s
history, as annual traffic keeps growing to unprecedented levels. Annual traffic is now one million passengers more than it was
in 2011, a growth of more than 25%, with traffic of the last four years having
risen greater than passenger movements of the previous 10 years combined.
(Source: maltairport.com, 17-Dec-2015)

Monday, December 14, 2015

An Air Malta Airbus A319-100 (9H-AEH), performing flight KM-395 from Amsterdam-Schiphol (the Netherlands) to Malta IAP, had to divert to Rome-Fiumicino (Italy) this afternoon, as a precautionary measure, due to some technical problems.Since no spare parts were available in Rome, Air Malta's flight KM-476 between Malta IAP and Paris-Orly (France), opw Airbus A320-200 '9H-AEP', had to be diverted to Rome to drop off spare parts and two technicians. After repairs were carried out on 9H-AEH, the aircraft departed again and reached Malta IAP with a delay of six hours. (13-Dec-2013)

A Turkish Airlines Airbus A330-200 (TC-JIV), performing flight TK-589 from Liberville (Gabon) to Istantbul-Ataturk IAP (Turkey), had to divert to Malta International Airport this morning due to a medical emergency onboard. The aircraft continued with its flight to Istanbul after a two-hour technical stop. (10-Dec-2013)

Wednesday, December 9, 2015

Passenger figures this November have continued the upward trend which
has characterized this year’s overall performance, increasing by 10.6%
over the same period last year and equivalent to an additional 27,250
passenger movements.

Seat capacity grew by 9.4% due to greater route frequency, while the
number of occupied seats on flights also increased from 80% to 81.3%.

The top five destinations last month saw one major shift in which
Turkey displaced Switzerland after achieving an impressive 63.4% rise in
passengers due to increased flights to Istanbul.

This November two of
the airport’s top five markets saw a slight dip in traffic numbers with
France and Germany dropping by -3.6% and -0.2% respectively. The rest
outperformed the same period last year, with Italy registering an 18%
increase in passengers and the U.K. market increasing by 1.9%. Spain also
bolstered its traffic figures by more than double as a result of new
operations to and from Barcelona this winter.

In November the maximum take-off weight (MTOW) increased by 12.5%, and Cargo and Mail marked an increase of 11.5%, reaching 1,476 tonnes.

Overall traffic figures (Jan-Nov) show that over 300,000 more journeys started
and ended at our airport this year. Passenger movements have risen by
7.6%, aircraft movements by 6.4%, cargo and mail by 3.4%, and seat
capacity has expanded by 5.6%. (Source: maltairport.com, 8-Dec-2015)